The Dog Burial

The Dog Burial
 "Hey what's going on here?" The Patrolman asked. It was around midnight and I was on the roadside out in Ragland County, hunched over in front of my car with the headlights illuminating my ass. My heart jumped when I heard his voice. I was startled and too preoccupied with getting a dead dog off the two lane blacktop to hear his patrol car pull in behind my SUV. I stood up, turned my upper torso towards him but keeping my legs spread across the bloody creature. "Uh, just dragging this dead dog out of the road!" I coughed, made a wincing face and turned back towards the mangled dog and continued flipping it over onto a pizza box I found nearby. "Did you run over it?" The officer asked. "Yeah, but it was already dead" I told him. "What are you gonna with it?" he asked as he walked towards me, stopping to look into my car with his flashlight.  I didn't answer right away. I hadn't considered what I would do yet. "I couldn't just leave him there!  The cars ahead of me ran over the little guy and I tried to go around him but didnt want to swerve and freak out the cars in the lane beside me!" I explained. I finally flipped the sad critter onto the box, and pulled the whole furry thing off the asphalt and onto the gravel shoulder. "Well, what I'm really asking is where you taking him now that you have him off the road? You cant leave a dead body on the county right way. That's  violation of county and state law well as a bio-hazard to other living creatures! " he said laughing. "I can't take it with me ! It stinks! I just felt bad for it!"  "Sir, You must dispose of the dog in the proper manner, and not here on the county right of way!" Exasperated, I opened the rear door and grabbed the poor dog and plopped it into the cargo area. With smelly blood dripping down my pants legs, I gagged and shut the door in time to see the patrolman drive off shaking his head. I drove around until I found  dirt road and pulled over. It took me  hour to dig a big enough hole for him using my tire iron. I noticed he had a collar on him. I unbuckled  it and read the tag. His name was Runner. Poor fellow will run no more. So, I covered him up with dirt and cried. Every loving creature deserves a dignified resting place, so I gave Runner the best I could do.  I found a big smooth rock and made a headstone with the collar wrapped around it. I said a few words to signify his passing over the Rainbow Bridge where he will run for eternity in God's green pastures where he will unite with the family who was probably still searching for him. I told him I was sorry but it was the best I could do, and to tell my dogs Biscuit and Woody I loved them. After my impromptu eulogy, dirty and exhausted I headed back to my car dirty and wearing bloody clothes, holding a bloody tire iron, with blood dripping down the back of my vehicle, as I shut the rear hatch, I turned to see 3 police cars, with lights flashing coming up the dirt road! I just shook my head and started laughing at the situation. I'm sure I looked like someone out of a horror movie. After all my efforts, I now dreaded having to dig poor Runner up and move him again.